OK, I have been following a soccer team for a few years that just made it to Premiership this season. But I am really ingnorant of how the season works in English football.

So can anyone (probably LITP) give me the basics of how a football season works over there?

How long is the regular season? How do the playoffs work? How does the European Cup work? How many teams get busted down to first division at the end of the season?

Thanks in advance - HB

tony hipchest

01-27-2007, 03:00 PM

How does the European Cup work?

Thanks in advance - HByou place the peanut shell over the midregion and pull the 2 rubberbands around the legs? :toofunny:

Livinginthe past

01-27-2007, 03:47 PM

OK, I have been following a soccer team for a few years that just made it to Premiership this season. But I am really ingnorant of how the season works in English football.

So can anyone (probably LITP) give me the basics of how a football season works over there?

How long is the regular season? How do the playoffs work? How does the European Cup work? How many teams get busted down to first division at the end of the season?

Thanks in advance - HB

Hey Hawk,

A soccer convert eh? Im impressed.

We have 20 teams in our Premier League, each teams plays the other teams twice (once home and once away) making the season 38 games long.

The season typically runs from August right through to the end of May (which makes for a nice short offseason)

There is no 'playoffs' in the Premier league - whoever has the most points at the end of the year is crowned English Champions.

3 teams (with the fewest points) are relegated to the division below (there are 4 divisions, in all) and 3 teams with the best records from that division replace them.

The European Cup has a fairly drawn out qualification process (for the lesser teams) so i'll skip that.

The main tournament has 8 groups of 4 teams - they each play each other twice (home and away) with 3 points awarded for a win, 1 for a draw, and zero for a loss.

The top 2 teams in each of the 8 groups qualify for the knockout tournament where they each play one other team (over 2 games again - home and away) - the winner progresses and the losers go home.

Eventually you end up the final two teams who play in the Champions league final - the winner being the European Champions.

Teams are drawn from all over Europe, but the major powers are England, Italy, Spain and Germany.

So, im hoping you are a follower of Sheffield United or of Reading - I think you have better taste than to have anything to do with Watford (my teams local rivals).

I support my local team - Luton Town - we are the league below the Premier and are a million miles away in earning capacity.

Hope that helps - any other questions just fire away :cheers:

NM

Hawk Believer

02-02-2007, 12:57 AM

Thanks for the explanation. I do happen to have been following Reading! A friend of mine from high school married the keeper Marcus Hahnemann back in the day. I don't see them very much since his career took them out of Seattle but I occasionally check the standings to see what is going on in their lives. He started off with Fulham when they were still 1st division but didn't get to play much. So then he ended up at Reading and it looks like things have been going very well. Its great to see them doing so well in their first year in the Premier division.

That is interesting that there is no English League post season. But I guess that the European Cup is the postseason. Is the European championship the end or does the champ play the Asian or South Americam champ?

What is the FA Cup?

What is the reaction across the pond to Beckham playing in LA?

yinzer-inseattle

02-18-2007, 03:19 PM

HawkB

I'm a Steelers fan in Seattle. Maybe we've crossed paths? I've also lived in the UK (about 10 miles from Reading). When I lived there Reading was in the second division (2 below the Premiership). They've played well enough since then to get promoted twice with their first foray into the EPL this year. I got to Reading play a few times with Marcus in goal. I too became a Reading fan by default as they were the closest team to where I lived/worked.

As for the FA cup. That's an English cup league championship that pits teams from the different divisions against each other. It's interesting because it gives smaller teams a chance to play against the elite EPL teams in a meaningful game. It would be similar to major league baseball holding a tournament with major and minor league teams in it. The games occur during the regular season with the cup final in April-May.

The European cup is really not a post season (like USA sports) as it is a tournament for the top teams from each league. The tournament takes place after the start of the next season.

Hawk Believer

02-20-2007, 09:24 PM

That is interesting about the FA cup. Has a team that wasn't in Premiership wver won it? Is the champions league kind of similar?

I think the system of teams being promoted and regulated is pretty cool. But its got to have some big financial implications. If a team like Reading goes from the 2nd division to the premier league in a few years, they probably don't have a big venue to play at do they? So you might have a team playing in the elite league with a third class stadium. Or if a team gets relegated, I would imagine their financial inflows might not pay for a nice venue.

Lets say MLB was run like English football. The Mariners built a state of the art stadium a few years back. At that time they were really good. Since then they would have been relagated to AAA because they have been playing so poorly. So how would they be able to maintain revenue to pay for the stadium (that is of course assuming the tax payers hadn't paid for it..)

Yinzer - Not sure we've ever crossed paths. How long you been out here? I live up north in the Phinney/Greenwood area.